Center for Optoelectronic Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.
Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Psychiatry Res. 2015 Mar 30;231(3):286-91. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2015.01.010. Epub 2015 Jan 19.
The mirror neuron system (MNS) may be implicated in schizophrenia. This study investigated MNS structures, including the pars opercularis (Pop), the supramarginal gyrus (SMg), the third branch of the superior longitudinal fasciculus, and callosal fibers interconnecting bilateral Pop (CC-Pop) and SMg (CC-SMg), and clarified their relationships with positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Participants comprised 32 schizophrenia patients and 32 matched controls who received T1-weighted structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI, T1WI) and diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI). The cortical measures were computed from the T1WI data. Tract integrity was assessed using a tractography-based analysis of the generalized fractional anisotropy (GFA) derived from the DSI data. Pearson׳s correlations and multiple linear regression analysis were used to investigate the associations between MNS structures and positive and negative symptom scores of schizophrenia. Cortical thickness in bilateral Pop and SMg were significantly thinner and mean GFA of CC-Pop was significantly decreased in patients. Negative symptoms were significantly correlated with left SMg volume, and positive symptoms were significantly correlated with right SMg thickness. Multiple linear regression analysis showed left SMg volume to be the strongest contributor to the negative symptoms. The association between left SMg volume and negative symptoms may reflect the degree of social cognition impairment in schizophrenia.
镜像神经元系统（MNS）可能与精神分裂症有关。本研究调查了 MNS 结构，包括前脑岛部（Pop）、缘上回（SMg）、上纵束的第三分支以及双侧 Pop（CC-Pop）和 SMg（CC-SMg）之间的胼胝体纤维，并阐明了它们与精神分裂症阳性和阴性症状的关系。参与者包括 32 名精神分裂症患者和 32 名匹配的对照者，他们接受了 T1 加权结构磁共振成像（T1WI）和弥散张量成像（DTI）检查。皮质测量值是从 T1WI 数据中计算得出的。使用基于弥散张量成像数据的广义各向异性分数（GFA）的轨迹追踪分析来评估束完整性。采用 Pearson 相关分析和多元线性回归分析来研究 MNS 结构与精神分裂症阳性和阴性症状评分之间的关系。患者双侧 Pop 和 SMg 的皮质厚度明显变薄，CC-Pop 的平均 GFA 明显降低。阴性症状与左侧 SMg 体积显著相关，阳性症状与右侧 SMg 厚度显著相关。多元线性回归分析显示左侧 SMg 体积是阴性症状的最强贡献者。左侧 SMg 体积与阴性症状之间的关联可能反映了精神分裂症患者社会认知障碍的程度。
